[Advaita-l] Fwd: Shankara admits Vishnu and other deities as upasya in images

[V Subrahmanian]

On Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 5:53 PM, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

> praNAms Sri Subbu prabhuji
> Hare Krishna
>
> I read somewhere that whenever shankara gives examples with regard to
> upAsana, he only mentions SAlagrAma (vishNu Saaligraama) but never gives
> the example with regard to shiva in linga rUpa or devi in Sri chakra in his
> prasthAna traya bhAshya. Does shankara bhAshya dictionary available in net
> throw any light on this??  Please clarify.  I am not talking about his
> prakarANa-s and stotra-s on shiva and bhagavati.  Just interested whether
> there is any mention about linga and sri chakra in prasthAna traya
> bhAshya.
>

Dear Bhaskar ji,

As is well known, the expressions such as      BSB 3.3.9  yathaa vaa
pratimaadiShu viShNvaadibuddhyadhyaasaH  [note the aadi after vishnu] are
what are abundantly found across the prasthana traya bhashyas.  We also
find passages such as in  BSB 1.2.14  for the realization of the Brahman
that is all pervading, the prescription of a location is not a
contradiction, just as the saalagraama is for Vishnu.

The passages I have shown in the present article are not of the type that
restrict the mention of deity to Vishnu alone; they include other deities
too.  And 'saalagraama' is an upalakshana, representative, for other
devices too.  And Vishnu is upalakshana for other deities too. That is what
is brought out by the 'aadi' in Shankara's bhashya passages I have shown in
this article. The mention of linga or chakra is not in the prasthana traya
bhashya.

regards
subbu

>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> Bhaskar
>
>
>